Upgrading to Proz yearly membership Thread poster: Marica Lagarese
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Hello everybody,
as I'm new to the business and struggling to get new clients, I was wondering if upgrading to proz yearly membership would help me to get a client or two? I don't know which direction to go, I'm sending tons of CV for nothing.
What's your experience? Is the money worth the try?
| | | | Adieu 
Ukrainian to English
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| Julia Osina
Italy
Local time: 18:02
Italian to Russian
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| aumentare le proprie capacità e aggiungere qualche altra lingua di lavoro | Feb 21, 2022 |
Ciao Marica,
ho visto che vorresti lavorare nell'ambito delle traduzioni dall'inglese all'italiano. I traduttori affermati normalmente hanno nel bagaglio più lingue di lavoro, più di 3 di sicuro. Un traduttore, al mio modesto parere, può sopravvivere sul mercato solo se possiede una profonda conoscenza di 4 o più lingue oppure offre al mercato una combinazione rara. Altrimenti nessun upgrade possa essere d'aiuto. Certo che esiste sempre un genio che ci riesca sempre a lavorare bene anc... See more Ciao Marica,
ho visto che vorresti lavorare nell'ambito delle traduzioni dall'inglese all'italiano. I traduttori affermati normalmente hanno nel bagaglio più lingue di lavoro, più di 3 di sicuro. Un traduttore, al mio modesto parere, può sopravvivere sul mercato solo se possiede una profonda conoscenza di 4 o più lingue oppure offre al mercato una combinazione rara. Altrimenti nessun upgrade possa essere d'aiuto. Certo che esiste sempre un genio che ci riesca sempre a lavorare bene anche con una sola lingua straniera. Però bisogna essere un genio del marketing. Inizia, magari, con le iscrizioni alle istituzioni primarie che ti fanno da trampolino come Camere di Commercio, ICE, Tribunali vari, associazioni che si occupano delle adozioni internazionali ed altri simili. Poi dopo un po' di gavetta esegui un upgrade qui nel frattempo aggiungendo qualche altra lingua di lavoro. ▲ Collapse
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Marica Lagarese wrote:
Hello everybody,
as I'm new to the business and struggling to get new clients, I was wondering if upgrading to proz yearly membership would help me to get a client or two? I don't know which direction to go, I'm sending tons of CV for nothing.
What's your experience? Is the money worth the try?
I've been a paying member here only for the last 4 years. There's no guarantee that ProZ membership will get you clients, but there's one thing for sure — the clients (read: agencies) won't take you seriously without a ProZ account. In turn, we, the translators (or at least I believe most of us), don't take the agencies seriously if they don't have a ProZ account. A good BlueBoard record also helps establish trust.
There are several factors that will help you get clients such as your language pair, specialization, experience, pricing and communication. I've managed to get only one project from the job ads here. Most of all other projects I've been assigned with came from agencies registered in ProZ. I think I was the one who made the first move. I rarely get contacted by agencies (not mailing lists, but direct messages). I guess I would continue receiving projects if I stopped renewing my membership. But then ProZ is like my business card. I can do without it, but I need a business card.
Sending CVs is a not an effort in vain, but it takes time. My biggest client started sending me regular jobs 2 years after our first contact.
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Julia Osina wrote:
Ciao Marica,
ho visto che vorresti lavorare nell'ambito delle traduzioni dall'inglese all'italiano. I traduttori affermati normalmente hanno nel bagaglio più lingue di lavoro, più di 3 di sicuro. Un traduttore, al mio modesto parere, può sopravvivere sul mercato solo se possiede una profonda conoscenza di 4 o più lingue oppure offre al mercato una combinazione rara. Altrimenti nessun upgrade possa essere d'aiuto. Certo che esiste sempre un genio che ci riesca sempre a lavorare bene anche con una sola lingua straniera. Però bisogna essere un genio del marketing. Inizia, magari, con le iscrizioni alle istituzioni primarie che ti fanno da trampolino come Camere di Commercio, ICE, Tribunali vari, associazioni che si occupano delle adozioni internazionali ed altri simili. Poi dopo un po' di gavetta esegui un upgrade qui nel frattempo aggiungendo qualche altra lingua di lavoro.
Ciao Julia,
Direi che trovo il tuo approccio un po' troppo pessimistico. So di non essere un genio e non credo di essere bravo nel marketing. Ma ecco la mia prospettiva: milioni di parole vengono tradotte ogni giorno e un/a traduttore/ice non può farne più di qualche migliaia. Quelle parole sono assegnate ad alcune persone e vorremmo solo una piccola fetta di quella torta grande. Qualche migliaia di parole al giorno (in media) dovrebbero bastarci. Se non le riceviamo così, anche un'altra coppia di lingue non sarebbe di grande aiuto. E’ inutile dire che il ritorno dell'investimento sul tempo per aggiungere una nuova lingua al nostro arsenale sarebbe più piccolo di quello che otterremmo lucidando le mele esistenti (coppia di lingue) per attirare i clienti.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 18:02
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Marica Lagarese wrote:
I was wondering if upgrading ... would help me to get a client or two?
Paying for ProZ.com membership has only two benefits for a young translator:
- You appear higher up in directory searches.
- You are notified of some jobs earlier than non-paying members.
You currently appear on page 200+ of a directory search. Buying membership will catapult you to about page 45, but that's still a long way from being seen by potential clients. There are 1303 English-Italian translators on ProZ.com with a paid membership -- you can't hope to compete with them just by buying the paid membership.
Your best bet is to continue what you're currently doing... getting names of potential clients from lists of agencies, e.g.:
- the Blue Board (addresses not visible to non-paying ProZ.com members, but the URLs are often on the associated profiles, and/or Google is your friend)
- http://www.paymentpractices.net (USD 20 per year, thousands of agencies listed)
- https://groups.io/g/WPPF/topics (lots of old mails in the Files section)
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 18:02
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Google Translate says | Feb 21, 2022 |
Google Translate says Julia Osina wrote:
I saw that you would like to work as part of translations from English to Italian. The established translators normally have more work languages in luggage, more than 3 for sure. A translator, to my humble opinion, can survive the market only if he has a profound knowledge of 4 or more languages or offers the market a rare combination. Otherwise no upgrade can help. Of course there is always a genius who always succeeds to work well even with a single foreign language. But we need to be a marketing genius. Start, perhaps, with registrations to primary institutions that give you a trampoline as chambers of commerce, ICE, various courts, associations that deal with international adoptions and other similar ones. Then after a little gavegette, perform an upgrade here meanwhile adding some other language.
Google Translate says Metin Demirel wrote:
I would say that I find your approach a little too pessimistic. I know I'm not a genius and I don't think I'm good at marketing. But here is my perspective: millions of words are translated every day and a translator / ICE can not make more than a few thousand. Those words are assigned to some people and we would just like a small slice of that big cake. A few thousand words per day (on average) should suffice. If we don't receive them so, even another torque of languages would not be a great help. It is useless to say that the return of the investment on time to add a new language to our arsenal would be smaller than what we would polish the existing apples (pair of languages) to attract customers.
There is an Italian-language subforum at ProZ.com:
https://www.proz.com/forum/italian-26.html
[Edited at 2022-02-21 19:47 GMT]
| | | | | Yes, it's worth the money | Feb 21, 2022 |
ProZ.com has been and still is my best marketing medium. I get offers from agencies and sometimes also from direct clients without having to do much. Well, my profile is not a normal standard profile. Maybe that's the difference. I would advise you to become a member and to choose at least one special subject which makes your profile special. All the best!
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Julia Osina wrote:
Ciao Marica,
ho visto che vorresti lavorare nell'ambito delle traduzioni dall'inglese all'italiano. I traduttori affermati normalmente hanno nel bagaglio più lingue di lavoro, più di 3 di sicuro. Un traduttore, al mio modesto parere, può sopravvivere sul mercato solo se possiede una profonda conoscenza di 4 o più lingue oppure offre al mercato una combinazione rara. Altrimenti nessun upgrade possa essere d'aiuto. Certo che esiste sempre un genio che ci riesca sempre a lavorare bene anche con una sola lingua straniera. Però bisogna essere un genio del marketing. Inizia, magari, con le iscrizioni alle istituzioni primarie che ti fanno da trampolino come Camere di Commercio, ICE, Tribunali vari, associazioni che si occupano delle adozioni internazionali ed altri simili. Poi dopo un po' di gavetta esegui un upgrade qui nel frattempo aggiungendo qualche altra lingua di lavoro.
I cannot agree. I offer three language combinations, but easily 85% of my work is English>German. Many of my clients only care about one or two of my combinations.
[Bearbeitet am 2022-02-21 20:52 GMT]
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Julia Osina wrote:
(...) I traduttori affermati normalmente hanno nel bagaglio più lingue di lavoro, più di 3 di sicuro. Un traduttore, al mio modesto parere, può sopravvivere sul mercato solo se possiede una profonda conoscenza di 4 o più lingue oppure offre al mercato una combinazione rara.
I offer 4 language combinations (EN-PT, FR-PT, ES-PT, IT-PT) and like our colleague Ines most of my customers have a clear preference for EN-PT. As you can clearly see for what I translated last year:
2021
EN/PT: 358,883 words
ES/PT: 120,291 words
FR/PT: 122,630 words
IT/PT: 22,118 words
Good luck!
Teresa
| | | | Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 13:02
Japanese to English
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| Proz yearly membership | Feb 22, 2022 |
No. For $120, you get access to bidding for projects from bottom feeder companies that never provide any income. The $120 is better spent elsewhere. After years of being a member, I stopped.
| | | | matt robinson
Spain
Local time: 18:02
Member (2010)
Spanish to English
I like the site and, as they say, someone has to pay for all this shit. I suppose it depends on what you want from a translation site. it won't guarantee work. Just imagine, you pay your 100 groats or whatever and suddenly you have an unlimited stream of work forever. In what sector could that scenario ever happen?
The directories here are good, but if that is all you want then google is probable just as good. If you bid on posted jobs then I imagine you have to go very low on price.
... See more I like the site and, as they say, someone has to pay for all this shit. I suppose it depends on what you want from a translation site. it won't guarantee work. Just imagine, you pay your 100 groats or whatever and suddenly you have an unlimited stream of work forever. In what sector could that scenario ever happen?
The directories here are good, but if that is all you want then google is probable just as good. If you bid on posted jobs then I imagine you have to go very low on price.
Working as a translator can be a solitary job though. If, like me, you work alone in the middle of nowhere, then ProZ is the nearest thing to being in an office with others. This "office chatter" might not help you make money, but I find it useful, interesting and amusing. Kudos is also a feature which I use and enjoy.
I can't remember what is behind the paywall. It may be the case that all the features you find useful are available free of charge, but personally I wouldn't want the site to disappear, and so I pay my dues accordingly in the hope that I am contributing to the site's longevity. ▲ Collapse
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 18:02
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Behind the paywall | Feb 22, 2022 |
matt robinson wrote:
I can't remember what is behind the paywall.
Go here: https://go.proz.com/professional-membership
and then scroll down to "ProZ.com Membership Benefits". The word "member" is ProZ.com's jargon for paying membership (if you don't pay, you're a "user", and if you're not registered, you're a "visitor"). So the "membership" benefits on that page is what you get when you pay.
Basically:
- Paying members appear before all non-paying members in directory searches
- Job posters see quotes from paying members first (I'm not sure what this means)
- Paying members can submit quotes to member-only jobs (ProZ.com claims that over half of job postings are restricted to paying members for at least twelve hours)
- Paying members have unlimited Blue Board access (e.g. you can see the addresses and you can see comments)
And then there is the Plus package, which basically gives you free access to the video library, plus a few other benefits (e.g. free access to certain glossaries) that may or may not be relevant to you.
It is my understanding (but I can't get a URL for you right now) that if you cancel your paid membership early, you can get some of your money back, so it may be worth buying the paid membership for e.g. 3 months to see if the added benefits pan out.
| | | | Sadek_A
Local time: 21:02
English to Arabic
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| Far more importantly... | Feb 23, 2022 |
Michael Newton wrote:
access to bidding for projects from bottom feeder companies
Not to mention that there is currently zero active, transparent mechanism to show that the project was indeed existent and did actually get awarded to one of the bidders. An important professional means like proz job posting need not be left unscreened in terms of player job-posters, I reckon. Unserious service-seeking behavior tolerable on dating sites need not have space on money-earning professional sites.
| | | | Sadek_A
Local time: 21:02
English to Arabic
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| on contributing to site's longevity | Feb 23, 2022 |
I have been contemplating why proz is not introducing new, more-aggressive business models.
Proz already has publicity, they are known, and they clearly have (access to) funds. Why not invest into striking a trifold partnership model, i.e. end-client/proz/supplier, exclusively for challenging domains, where proz screens (outside the job board) the market for only long-term, rewarding projects in such tricky domains and then invites willing, tested-successful suppliers for a contract... See more I have been contemplating why proz is not introducing new, more-aggressive business models.
Proz already has publicity, they are known, and they clearly have (access to) funds. Why not invest into striking a trifold partnership model, i.e. end-client/proz/supplier, exclusively for challenging domains, where proz screens (outside the job board) the market for only long-term, rewarding projects in such tricky domains and then invites willing, tested-successful suppliers for a contractual commitment at the exact rate asked by each supplier, and where proz gets 20%-25% (all inclusive) of the suppliers fees in exchange for having secured the client and the project!
Multiple suppliers working on the same project don't even have, in such model, to ask for the same rate as each other.
This way proz secures the client the needed workforce for the project that could've been otherwise left untranslated due to its peculiar nature, and guarantees talented suppliers a satisfactory stream of income from projects where competition is low.
For critics looking to poke holes in my suggestion:
1. Clients with such projects rarely (or, more precisely, can't) care about budget.
2. Asking for the rate with which they're comfortable guarantees suppliers continuing to contently serve on the project. Even if later they realize they're charging less than others on the same project, it would still be what they, themselves, have comfortably asked for.
3. Usually, the client or the middle link defining the rate (which could be low) can result in attracting but unqualified suppliers or insufficient workforce. ▲ Collapse
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